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Storm finishes three-in-three weekend at Musketeers

Sioux City, Ia. – The Tri-City Storm (20-29-6-2, 48 pts., 7th Western) completes its third game of the weekend against the league-best Sioux City Musketeers (39-10-5-2, 85 pts., 1st Western) Sunday at 3:05 p.m. Coverage of the afternoon showdown begins at 2:45 p.m. on The Breeze 94.5 FM.

The Storm finished its home schedule Saturday evening, falling, 4-1, to Chicago. Sioux City last played Friday and doubled Sioux Falls, 4-2. The Musketeers can clinch the Anderson Cup with a win Sunday. The Anderson Cup is awarded to the USHL’s top regular season team.
Tri-City’s final weekend of the season features a pair of road games. On April 7, the Storm is at Cedar Rapids at 7:05 p.m. Saturday, April 8, Tri-City completes the regular season against Des Moines at 7:05 p.m. Listen to both games on The Breeze 94.5 FM, with coverage starting at 6:45 with the Viaero Wireless Pregame Show.

Season tickets are available for the 2017-18 season and more information is at Stormhockey.com or the Viaero Center Box Office at 308-338-8144. Normal box office hours run from 11am-6pm on Monday-Friday.

Three-in-three
Common in minor professional hockey and junior leagues, the Storm is completing its first “three-in-three”, three games in three straight days, since the 2014-15 season. The Storm played a pair of three-in-threes over three weekends, February 6-8 and February 20-22. The Storm went 2-1-0-0 in the first set and had a 10-game win streak snapped by Waterloo. Two weeks later, the Tri-City earned points in two of three games (1-1-1-0).

Last season was the Storm’s first without a three-in-three.

What’s coming up?
After the road games next weekend, the Storm prepares to build for the future in both phases of the USHL Draft May 1-2. In Phase I, teams select the top 2001 birth years. Phase II features all players eligible for the league (1997-2001 birth years).

Always about home
The Storm is 0-2-0-0 at the Tyson Events Center this season and 4-10-0-1 at Sioux City over the last five seasons. Conversely, Tri-City has won eight of the last ten home games against the Musketeers. Sioux City won a pair of games at the Viaero Center this season, its first victories in Kearney since the 2013-14 campaign.

The Storm is 26-18-3-5 in the USHL’s Tier I history (since 2002-03) at home vs. the Musketeers and 11-30-2-3 at Sioux City.

Season series retrospective
After winning two of the first three matchups, the Storm has lost the last three and managed two goals. Matiss Kivlenieks is 3-0-0-0 against the Storm with a 1.00 goals against average, .962 save percentage and shutout.

Wyatt Bongiovanni leads Tri-City with three points (1g, 2a) in the season series. Linus Weissbach has two goals.

Sioux City’s top scorer Eeli Tolvanen has three goals and five points in six season-series games. The league’s leading shot taker (233, 4.7 shots/game) has attempted a squad-high 27 shots against the Storm. On February 25 at Tri-City, Tolvanen scored twice and attempted eight shots.

Eric Dop is 0-3-0-0 and has allowed nine goals on 104 shots (.913 save percentage). Last time out, Dop made 35 saves, one short of a career high.

Sioux City’s season
The Musketeers have the chance to set its team record for most wins (41), points (86) and win its first Anderson Cup in 21 years. Sioux City last won the Anderson Cup in 1986, when it set its club record for wins and points. The Musketeers have 39 wins and 85 points with four games left in the season. The club has two Anderson Cups and three Clark Cups (1982, 1986, 2002).

Sioux City has already set its team mark for fewest regulation losses in Tier 1 league history, besting the 2003 Musketeers (15 regulation defeats).

Scouting the Musketeers
Since falling to Chicago on February 10, the Musketeers are 14-1-0-0 and ride a six-game winning streak into Sunday’s contest. Over the 15-game stretch, the club has outscored opponents, 67-31 (4.5 GF/gm, 2.1 GA/gm).

Matiss Kivlenieks has set the Musketeers single-season record for wins (35) and passed Jerry Kuhn (27 in 2006-07) in March. Kivlenieks leads the goaltending triple crown with wins, a 1.86 goals against average and .933 save percentage. The Minnesota State commit is tied for a league-high five shutouts and is 18-1-2-1 since January 13. He has allowed at least three goals in 11 of 46 appearances and given up four or more six times. Sioux City allows two goals per game, fewest in the league.

Offensively, a pair of former Storm players (Charlie Kelleher, Odeen Tufto) are in the Musketeers’ top-three for points. Top points producer Eeli Tolvanen (52 points) is tied for third in the league with 30 goals. Over the last four games, the Boston College commit has three goals and nine points. Kelleher has 50 points, 17 since the trade in February. Tufto (47 points) scored Friday and is on a five-game point streak (5g, 5a).

On Deck
Tri-City finishes 2016-17 with a pair of road games on April 7-8. On Friday, the Storm is at Cedar Rapids for a 7:05 puck drop. The season finale begins at 7:05 p.m. on Saturday, April 8 at Des Moines.Get Storm Tickets